Ion-exchange membranes are used in a variety of applications. One application of ion-exchange membranes is in electrochemical processes including electrosynthesis, electrodialysis, and electrolysis. The electrochemical processes perform a number of useful functions such as desalination of salt water, production of chlorine and sodium hydroxide from brine, and production of electricity in fuel cells.
Conventional ion-exchange membranes used in the aforementioned processes commonly comprise polystyrene linked to a polyolefin film. Unfortunately, the process for linking the polystyrene to the polyolefin for conventional ion-exchange membranes often employs a hazardous radiation source such as cobalt-60 gamma radiation.
Various processes have been tried to produce the polystyrene linked to polyolefin without employing radiation. In one such process a support polymer is swelled by soaking it directly in heated styrene or heated styrene with an organic solvent. The swollen support polymer is then polymerized in a heated brine bath with or without organic solvents. Unfortunately, the process generates excessive organic waste from solvents and homopolymerized styrene which must be washed from the product with rigorous washing. Another disadvantage is that the process does not result in a high amount of polystyrene linked to polyolefin.
For the aforementioned reasons, it would be desirable to discover a new process for preparing polystyrene or other polymers linked to a support polymer such as polyolefin. It would further be desirable if such a process resulted in a high amount of polymer linked to the polyolefin without radiation and without a large amount of organic waste from organic solvents or homopolymerized unlinked polymer. It would also be beneficial if the resulting compositions could be readily converted into a useful ion exchange membrane.
Advantageously, new processes have been discovered to make a polymer grafted to a support polymer. The processes result in a composition comprising a high amount of polymer grafted to a support polymer. The compositions can be readily converted to useful ion exchange membranes which reject ions surprisingly and unexpectedly better than conventional membranes. The process comprises (1) mixing an initiator with a monomer to be grafted to form a monomer-initiator mixture; (2) suspending the monomer-initiator mixture in water to form an aqueous suspension; and (3) contacting a support polymer with the aqueous suspension under conditions sufficient to polymerize the monomer and graft the polymer to the support polymer.